Mabon Ritual of the Second Harvest
Autumn Equinox, September 22nd
Tools for the Ritual:
· Russet and yellow altar cloths
· Golden God candle
· Silver Goddess candle
· White altar candle
· Quarter candles and corresponding stones
· Matches, taper and snuffer
· Simple feast – homemade bread and hot chocolate
· A small fallen tree branch – and other materials (see below)
· Cauldron or fire-proof bowl
· Sprigs of Ivy in a small vase
· An autumn incense, for example prinknash basilica blend
Tools for the Earth Healing and Peace Spell:
· Blue candle in a candle holder
· Lavender oil
Preparation:
Before the day of ritual take a small branch from the garden, or a fallen one found locally. Place it in a vase. Find items that represent things that you have begun, completed, or plan to begin soon. These items can be physical things or words written on strips of paper. You will also need some strips of paper that have been left blank. The blank strips represent things that you will begin this winter but have not yet planned. They are ripening possibilities.
Also find some yarn or thread in autumn colours and cut it into enough 6″ long pieces to fasten all the items to the branch.
Think of things that you have left undone. Decide why this should be so.
Choose things that are no longer creative parts of your life. Write these on small strips of paper. These are to be cast aside during the ritual.
At the beginning of the ritual mentally cleanse and sweep the area moving in deosil fashion. Set up the quarter candles and stones symbolising the elements
of the quarters. Decorate the altar with its cloths, and then the candles.
Place the branch in the middle of the altar, the golden God candle to the right back of it, the silver Goddess candle to the left back of it. The cauldron goes in front of the Goddess candle. The white altar candle goes at the centre back of the altar between the Goddess and God candles. Place the items for the simple feast to one side and the ivy in front of the God candle.
Take a shower or splash your face with water for purification. Sit quietly and meditate for a while, then ground and centre.
The Ritual:
The ritual is begun. Cast the circle, calling the quarters and spirit centre.
Invoke the Goddess and God. Bid them all Hail and Welcome.
I come before you, my Goddess and God as the wheel of the year turns to the time of the autumn equinox once more. Green Lady, the earth has been weighed down with the bountifulness of your great harvest. My God, your creativity has brought forth the burgeoning fruits of nature that I have seen all around me.
Two that are one, your joining has produced life that dances in the light, may the harvest nourish and sustain all living creatures through the coming time of darkness and winter.
Many things have happened in the past summer, and many more will come in the autumn and winter. I stand in this place as the year balances between the dark and light times. I look back and remember, look forward and plan, and I balance the dark and light in my life.
Hold your hands lightly over the branch in its vase and say
You were grown in the time that is now past. You lived through the events that happened in that time.
You have been cast aside as dead in the present time but your continuing natural beauty and form live and work in this ritual.
You will go back to and re-nourish the earth in the time that is coming. In the future you will live again in the ever-turning cycle of life, death and rebirth.
While looking at you in the coming weeks may I remember the past, present and future which are represented in all living things as they continue on the cycle of the ever-turning wheel.
I look back as the past blazes in my mind. I see the things begun, the things completed and the things left undone.
I give thanks for the things that are begun and I hope for their continuing.
Take the items that represent the begun things and decorate the branch with them, tying them on one by one, using the autumn coloured yarn or thread.
I give thanks for the things that are completed and I offer them up as a harvest of my own creativity.
Take the items that represent the completed things and decorate the branch with them, tying them on one by one, using the autumn coloured yarn or thread.
I think on the things that have been left undone. I cast them aside now in the hope that their loss will create space for the new things that will be.
Take the strips of paper with the unfinished things written on them and, using the altar candle, set light to them one by one and drop them in the cauldron. Watch them burn. The ashes are to be scattered on the garden after the ritual.
I look forward as the future beckons with the coming time of introspection and continued inner growth. I see the things planned and look for the things not yet planned.
I give thanks for the things that are planned and look forward to beginning their creative cycle.
Take the items that represent the planned things and decorate the branch with them, tying them on one by one, using the autumn coloured yarn or thread.
I think on the things that are not yet planned. I hold myself open to new possibilities in the knowledge that I have made space for their existence.
Take the items that represent the unplanned things and decorate the branch with them, tying them on one by one, using the autumn coloured yarn or thread.
Arrange everything on the branch in a pleasing manner. When you have finished place the branch and vase back in their original position on the altar.
The warm time is passing, when the green earths creatures basked in the golden light of the sun. I remember times of bustling activity spent in the outer world of sunlight, and times of quiet exploration spent in the inner world of mind-light.
The cold time is coming, when the warm burrows of bed and fire-side beckon. I look forward to times of pensive and joyous reflection in the warmth of flickering candlelight, and busy activity in the safety and shelter of home.
Self Re-dedication
My life is consecrated to the Green Lady my Goddess and her consort the horned God. I offer myself once more to your service, Green Lady.
Crouch on the ground in a foetus position. Place one hand on the crown of your head and the other under you feet.
Everything that is between my hands is yours. I give it freely and with full knowledge and forethought. May everything that I am always be used honestly, truthfully, wisely and courageously in your service, Green Lady.
Uncurl yourself and continue
May I listen for and hear you,
May I look for and see you,
May I reach for and touch you,
May I wait for and find you.
Teach me what I need to know, and what I am now ready to know.
Your blessings are abundant, bless me abundantly.